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Mike
has built what he calls the Egg Shooter. He has built two 20 foot towers and
attached seven ten foot strands of bungee cord on each one, all connected to a
pocket that will hold this week's prize, the Cadillac of all grilling
apparatuses, the Big Green Egg, worth $1600. Stretch it to 20 feet and let it
go, and it'll face four Gs of force and one solid concrete floor. The rest
writes itself. But then Mike throws in a minefield of 120 psi air cannons.

And these three will have to make something that
will have to beat all of that.

- JOE COOKSLEY, flight test engineer and former
Marine out of Edwards AFB.
- LISA COTO, a custom fabricator and prop master for the movie industry.
- STEWART BAXTER, set builder for TV and carpenter from Los Angeles.

As usual, the three have to make something
that'll stop the slingshot and the air cannons from destroying the Big Green
Egg. They can't touch the Big Green Egg OR the slingshot OR the air cannon.

Forty-eight hours... start now!

The team wants to find out weight and distance.
It's big and heavy. What they want is a butterfly net or something to deflect
the Egg. They'll be using cargo strapping, cardboard boxes, and a mat of foam.
They'll try to stop the cannons with chicken wire. Their final build will
involve a giant net with a foam base, cardboard boxes, and a cargo net to catch
the egg. To block the cannons, they have a wooden frame with chicken wire.

Mike will be creating his own solution as well...
More on THAT later.

TEST #1: Cannon Impact. Mike has two of the air
cannons in place and live to shoot various ceramic things... The ceramics don't
stand a chance. Put some chicken wire round it... And it still doesn't stand a
chance. They may have to rethink their plan there.

And they do. They switch it up to corrugated
metal.

29 HOURS REMAINING

Lisa wants to change the material of the egg
catcher to wood. They're trying to protect the Egg from possibly cracking.

Back to Mike's solution, which is basically a
giant spring net which will propel forward once the Egg strikes. The Egg itself
will come to rest on foam mattresses and balloons.

Joe is still trying to wrap his head around the
ultimate math problem, thus calculating where to place the net. Mike is also
trying to place his carriage system. The formula for the trajectory...

d = [(v cos θ)/g]{v sin θ +√[(v
sin θ)² + 2gvo]}

Basically put, the angle shot is going to be key.
Mike has determined... 50 or 60 feet. Joe has figured... 45 feet. This is what
you call a game of inches.

22 HOURS REMAINING

And the team decides to put wheels on it, while
Joe takes a break from the drawing board to keep the build on schedule.
Meanwhile, Mike sees a problem with the cargo net creating a point of impact
with eight tons of force. It could also create a recoil effect.

TEST #2: Net Impact. The net has no elasticity or
give. First "Egg".. Broke on the frame. Second "Egg"... rebound. Third "Egg"...
Breaks through. So the team rethinks the net and reverses the layers with the
net around and the boxes and foam inside. But the question remains... where are
they going to put the net?

Mike is building a slanted canopy to deflect the
projectiles. And just to keep things interesting, Mike has beefed up one of his
main cannons... to fit a bowling ball.

Stewart moves the deflection roof, but still..
where are they going to put the net?

16 HOURS REMAINING

... to figure that one out. All they need is
velocity and angle. You know the weight, the angle, and the velocity... you know
where the Big Green Egg is landing.

Joe keeps landing at the same calculation... 45
feet.

5 HOURS REMAINING

The team has to finish their net, but Joe is
still trying to figure out where they have to put it. Joe has no choice but to
phone a friend. He finally figures out where he needs to put the egg catcher. 70
feet.

53 MINUTES REMAINING

... to fill the net with stuff. Meanwhile, Mike
does the same thing, only instead of foam, they have a honeycomb of balloons.

20 MINUTES REMAINING

Stewart is making one last build, a bowling ball
block.

It's all hands on deck to get everything in
place. Will they catch it?

Three... two... one... FIRE IN THE HOLE!...
and... Missed it by THAT much. Velocity was 33 miles and hour with an impact
force of 1400 pounds. And all for nothing.

BUT Mike's solution is on deck and if THAT fails,
then Zach's going to give them a Big Green Egg anyway, only because they MAY
have made this challenge a little too hard.

The main difference between Mike's and the
challengers' are the materials used and the field using them. But the result...
is the same. Mike undershoots his net and the Big Green Egg lands exactly where
Joe said it would. So that is a WIN!

Just goes to show you that sometimes you're the
windshield and sometimes you're the bug. That's what happens. Next time, the
only thing that stands between three more challengers and a new prize is Mike's
twisted imagination. Remember, if they catch it, they keep it.